Meaning: “conveying a significance that is not directly expressed . . .”
With the growth of the concept in my mind that meaning influences motives, understanding and cognitive content, I have since enjoyed a cascade (also by the power of Holy Spirit) of derivative realizations concerning how meaning fosters growth in other aspects of wisdom as well, such as in discernment, clarity and moral sense. Consider the following, Gentle Reader:
For me, wisdom, as the gift of God, included a rich supply of understanding in the form of reliable knowledge and distinctive meanings along with skills and abilities such as an athletic intellect, mental focus and sustainable proficiency in engaging issues, all of which contributed to sharpening my discernment, clarity and moral sense.
This gift of wisdom also included a whole new grasp and appreciation of symbols as a byproduct of meaning (take for example how a simple wood cross can symbolize the meaning of Christianity—“that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15: 3-4, NKJV)
All these faculties and skills became mine not because I am a “brain,” but because these are some of the abundant “riches” (Ephesians 1-3) available to all believers in warm, personal and supportive relationship with the Triune God.
I also grew to be acutely and gratefully conscious that truth was indeed stored up for me, and all seekers, within the pages of the Holy Bible—truth which the Triune God had promised would endure to all generations (mine included! Psalm 100:5, NKJV), truth He had breathed into and preserved in Scripture.
Needless to say, studying wisdom and understanding in the Scriptures is much more rich and complex than taking this overview approach we have been on in the past few blogs via the vehicle of Encarta definitions. Yet, rest assured, Gentle Reader, this overview is a great orientation, a succinct starting point, useful to you and useful to me. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Spiritual growth is a slow process. As I wisely grew into making Scripture more and more the center of my life and making all else subordinate, I put aside my concerns of how that would work out in my habits, routines, convictions, personality and appearance, asking God to be my solution in managing all those things. Still, I can report that going through such a learning experience has had awkward stages where I exhibit too much of this or too little of that. Yet, gratifyingly, at any point I can also see that God is crafting a better person in me and I am growing and maturing as a person, though I am still in major re-conformation and nowhere near complete.
Remember the USA Today article in blog #111, offering research that indicates that happiness is a byproduct of meaningful conversation, of conversation rich in ascertainable meaning?
That research explains why pondering a substantial subject with a kindred soul (one also enamored with the nuances and implications of meaning in a subject—like you, Gentle Reader) can be so gratifying. Sweet Spirit belonged to a group that had a “Lost” party every week to mull over the latest developments of the show and their meaning. That’s a winner of a party to me! What a great foundation a circle of friendship can be for growing as a person and building understanding—learning to grasp meaning!
What huge strides in growth and maturation it is to understand that meaning-seeking is thinking of the most-noble order, fundamental to wisdom, the capstone of the intellect.
What a great understanding in-and-of-itself to realize that understanding is built!
What a blessing that God has allowed me to grow through meaning-making and has shown me that meaning builds understanding, that understanding contributes to wisdom and that, thanks wholly to Him, just like Solomon, even the weakest among us (like me) can find wisdom plentiful and available, just by the asking for it (1 Kings 3:3-28; 4:29-34. NKJV).
To be continued . . .
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